Apparatus for providing fabric with embroidery simulation

ABSTRACT

A METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ACHIEVING A FABRIC WHICH HAS AN EYELET EMBROIDERY SIMULATION. HOLES ARE BURNED THROUGH THE FABRIC ACCORDING TO A PREDETERMINED PATTERN, AND THE FABRIC IS FLOCKED ALSO ACCORDING TO A PREDETERMINED PATTERN IN THE REGION OF THE HOLES BURNED THERETHROUGH, SO AS TO ACHIEVE IN THIS WAY A FABRIC WHICH SIMULATES AN EYELET EMBROIDERED FABRIC. THE FABRIC IS MAINTAINED IN CONTINUOUS MOVEMENT WHILE EXTENDING AROUND AND ENGAGING A ROTARY SHELL FORMED WITH OPENINGS PASSING THERETHROUGH ACCORDING TO THE PREDETERMINED PATTERN AND RECEIVING IN ITS INTERIOR A PIPE AND NOZZLES WHICH SUPPLY A COMBUSTION-SUPPORTING FLUID TO ACHIEVE FLAMES PASSING THROUGH THE OPENINGS AS THE FABRIC MOVES WITH THE ROTARY SHELL SO THAT IN THIS WAY THE OPENINGS ARE BURNED THROUGH THE FABRIC. AS THE FABRIC CONTINUES TO BE FED BEYOND THE SHELL IT IS FLOCKED.

J. VISCARDI Oct. 26, 1971 APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING FABRIC WITH EMBROIDERY SIMULATION Filed Sept. 22, 1969 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 I VENTOR Max/xv /scwew Oct. 26, 1971 J v sc 3,615,031

APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING FABRIC WITH EMBROIDERY SIMULATION Filed Sept. 22, 1969 2 Sl100t: -3huut 2 7151.4.

g ass .7474

J F {1 1,) W35 I? INVENTOR l/Ol/N [4864 9771 ATTORNEYS United States Patent U.S. Cl. 156497 9 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A method and apparatus for achieving a fabric which has an eyelet embroidery simulation. Holes are burned through the fabric according to a predetermined pattern, and the fabric is flocked also according to a predetermined pattern in the region of the holes burned therethrough, so as to achieve in this way a fabric which simu lates an eyelet embroidered fabric. The fabric is maintained in continuous movement while extending around and engaging a rotary shell formed with openings passing therethrough according to the predetermined pattern and receiving in its interior a pipe and nozzles which supply a combustion-supporting fluid to achieve flames passing through the openings as the fabric moves with the rotary shell so that in this way the openings are burned through the fabric. As the fabric continues to be fed beyond the shell it is flocked.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a fabric which is provided with an eyelet embroidery simulation.

In particular, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for achieving such a fabric.

While there are known methods and apparatus for achieving similar results, the known method and apparatus is extremely complex so that the cost of the embroidery-simulating fabric is quite high and at the same time it is not possible to achieve the desired results with a desired output. Thus, it is known to provide an apparatus having punches which will perforate, a fabric according to a predetermined pattern, and heaters are provided to reinforce the edges of the openings which are formed in this way. Thus, the known methods and apparatus are extremely expensive and cannot reliably achieve the desired results with the required precision.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is accordingly a primary object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus which will avoid the above drawbacks.

In particular, it is an object of the invention to provide a method and apparatus capable of achieving a precise embroidery-simulating pattern on a fabric at a cost which is far smaller than has heretofore been possible.

A further object of the invention is to provide a method and apparatus which can regulate the manner in which openings are formed in a fabric.

Also, it is an object of the invention to provide a meth- 0d and apparatus capable of maintaining a fabric in continuous movement during the working thereof to achieve the embroidery simulation.

According to the invention, holes are burned through the fabric according to a predetermined pattern, and then the fabric is flocked also according to a predetermined pattern at the region of the holes which were burned therethrough. The flames which burn through the fabric are directed through a predetermined pattern of openings formed in a rotary shell against which the fabric is placed and the fabric is fed so as to move together with Patented Oct. 26, 1971 the shell without any relative movement between the fabric and the shell at the engagement area therebetween. As the fabric with the holes burned therethrough advances beyond the shell, the fabric is flocked.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS The invention is illustrated by way of example in the accompanying drawings which form part of this applica tion and in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic partly fragmentary and partly sectional side elevation illustrating the method and apparatus of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the structure of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary sectional elevation taken along line 33 of FIG. 2 in the direction of the arrows and showing the structure at a scale enlarged as compared to FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a transverse sectional elevation taken along line 4-4 of FIG. 1 in the direction of the arrows and showing, at a scale which is enlarged as compared to FIG. 1, the manner in which flames are directed through the fabric;

FIG. 4a is a fragmentary plan view taken along 4a-4a of FIG. 4 in the direction of the arrows and illustrating the configuration of an opening which is burned through the fabric;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary sectional elevation taken along line 5-5 of FIG. 1 in the direction of the arrows and showing how adhesive is applied to the fabric during the feeding thereof;

FIG. 5a is a fragmentary plan view taken along line 5a-5a of FIG. 5 in the direction of the arrows and illustrating the manner in which adhesive is arranged around an opening such as that shown in FIG. 4

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary plan view of part of the fabric with the flock applied thereto;

FIG. 7 is a sectional elevation of the part of the fabric which is shown in FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is an illustration of part of an embroiderysimulating fabric according to the invention; and

FIG. 9 is a transverse section of the fabric of FIG. 8 taken along line 99 of FIG. 8 and showing the details of the fabric at a scale which is enlarged as compared to FIG. 8.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring first to FIGS. 8 and 9, there is illustrated therein an example of the embroidery-simulating fabric which can be achieved with the method and apparatus of the invention. This fabric 10 may be made of any thermoplastic material such as a fabric woven from thermoplastic yarn. For example, polyester yarn known as Dacron may be used to form the fabric 10. Holes 12 are burned through the fabric according to a predetermined pattern, and in the illustrated example, these holes 12 are arranged along a circle. In the center of this circle there is a floral pattern of flocking 14 while the holes 12 are surrounded by annular rings of flocking 16, and in this Way, a fabric which simulates embroidery is achieved.

Referring to FIGS. 1, 2 and 4, the apparatus includes a sheet means 16 in the form of a hollow cylindrical shell of metal, for example. This cylindrical shell is supported for rotary movement on freely turnable roller bodies 18 which engage the lower end regions of the shell 16 in the manner most clearly apparent from FIGS. 1 and 4.

A drive is operatively connected with the hollow cylindrical shell 16 to rotate the latter, and this drive includes a ring gear 20 fixed to and surrounding the shell 16 at the region of the right end thereof as viewed in FIG. 4. This gear 20 meshes with a driving gear 22 which is driven by any suitable motor.

An elongated pipe 24 extends through the hollow shell 16, communicates at its left end, as viewed in FIG. 4, with any suitable source of combustible gas and is closed at its right end, as indicated in FIG. 4. Any valve structure may be provided for controlling the supply of combustible gas into the pipe 24. This pipe 24 communicates with the interiors of a series of burner nozzles 26 arranged along the pipe 24 as shown in FIG. 4 and having the angular attitude apparent from FIG. 1. Thus, when the gas issuing from the nozzles 26 is ignited, flames will issue from the several nozzles. The sheet means or shell 16 is formed with a plurality of openings 28 arranged according to a predetermined pattern so that the flames issuing from the nozzles 26 will extend through the openings 28. As the shell 16 rotates, the openings will move through the flames so that when one revolution is completed, all of the openings of the shell will have had flames passing therethrough.

In order to control the extent to which the flames extend beyond the shell, a vacuum means 30 is provided. This vacuum means 30 takes the form of an elongated vacuum scoop or hood which has a bottom open end directed toward and located adjacent the exterior surface of the rotary shell. A tube 32 communicates with the scoop 30 and is connected to any source of suction so that the flames will be drawn into the scoop 30 in the manner indicated in FIG. 4.

The fabric 10 is derived from any suitable supply roll 34 shown at the right of FIG. 1. This fabric is guided first around a bar 36 before reaching the exterior surface of the shell 16. The fabric 10 then passes along the upper approximately semi-circular exterior surface of the shell before reaching a second guide bar 38 which together with the bar 36 maintains the fabric in engagement with the upwardly directed exterior surface of the rotary shell The fabric is fed by a pair of rolls 40 and 42. The roll 40 is made of soft rubber or the like, and is supported for rotary movement about its axis. The rolls 40 and 42 are interconnected through suitable gearing with the roll 42, being positively rotated in a clockwise direction, as shown by the arrow in FIG. 1. For this purpose, the drive gear 22 is fixed to a coaxial sprocket 44 which transmits the drive to the upper roll 42 through a sprocket chain 46 which passes around a second sprocket 48. This sprocket 48 is operatively connected with the roll 42 in a manner described in greater detail below and shown in FIG. 3.

The roll 42 is the printing roll and is provided at its exterior with annular depressions 50 arranged according to the same pattern as the openings 28. These annular grooves 50 are formed in the exterior surface of the roll 42 are also apparent from FIG. 5.

The roll 42, instead of applying ink, applies an adhesive coating. Situated in engagement with the roll 42 is a receptacle 52 which contains a supply of adhesive which rests against the exterior surface of the roll 42. The left edge of the lower wall 54 of the receptacle 52 defines the doctor blade frictionally bearing against the exterior surface of the rotating roller 42, so that in this way the annular depressions 50 are precisely filled with adhesive. Thus, as the fabric 10 is fed between the rolls 40 and 42, adhesive is applied to the upper surface of the fabric 10 around the openings 12, and FIG. a shows the fabric provided with an annular coating of adhesive 56 surrounding the opening 12 which is shown in FIG. 4a just before the adhesive is applied in the manner illustrated in FIG. 50.

Of course, the speed of rotation of the roller 42 is synchronized with the speed of rotation of the shell 16 so that as the fabric 10 is fed it will have no relative movement with respect to the shell 16 at the area thereof engaged by the fabric 10.

It is, of course, important that the pattern of depressions on the adhesive printing roller 42 be angularly positioned so as to have proper relationship with respect to the openings 28. For this purpose the driven sprocket 48 carries a rotary adjusting worm 58 supported for rotary movement by suitable extensions 60 which are fixed to the sprocket 48. This worm can be manually turned through a suitable Wrench applied to a non-circular end portion 62 of the worm indicated at the left end of the worm in FIG. 1. The worm meshes with a wormwheel 64 extending from a sleeve 66 which is freely surrounded by the sprocket 48 and which is keyed to a stub shaft 68 fixed to and extending from an end wall of the hollow printing roll 42. Thus, by turning the worm 58 it is possible to adjust the angular position of the printing roll 42 with respect to its axis. At the same time the drive is transmitted from the sprocket 48 through the worm and wormwheel 58, 64 to the sleeve 60 which is keyed to the shaft 68 so that the printing roll 42 necessarily turns with the sprocket 48 while being angularly adjustable with respect thereto.

Beyond the rolls 40, 42 the fabric is conveyed by the upper run of an endless belt assembly 70 to the flocking zone 72. The flock flows in a known way from a hopper 74 onto the fabric 10 to be flocked at the adhesive areas 56. In this way, each of the openings 12 will be surrounded with an area of flocking 76 as indicated in FIGS. 6 and 7. However, the depressions formed in the exterior surface of the printing roll 42 can have a configuration providing the floral pattern flocking portion 14 by deposition of suitable adhesive initially on the fabric 10 according to the pattern 14, so that additional flocking can be applied to the fabric. Thus, not only will the openings be surrounded with flocking but in addition, decorative flocking areas 14 are provided by way of the roller 42 and subsequent flocking structure.

FIG. 2 shows in addition to the structure described above and shown in FIG. 1, a solenoid valve 78 which is operatively connected with the pipe 24 so as to control the supply of combustible gas thereto, said valve being operative in response to the operation of the apparatus so as to be open when the apparatus is in operation and closed when the apparatus is out of operation.

Thus, with the method and apparatus of the invention, the openings 12 will be burned through the fabric .10 according to the pattern determined by the arrangement of the openings 28 in the sheet means 16, and then the fabric is flocked in the manner described above to achieve the eyelet embroidery-simulating fabric shown in FIGS. 8 and 9 described above.

As shown at the bottom right of FIG. 1, a cooling roller 80 is rotated by frictional engagement with shell 16 and extends into a bath 82 of cooling liquid such as water to maintain a cooling film in engagement with the rotating shell 16.

What is claimed is:

1. In an apparatus for manufacturing a fabric which has embroidery simulation, sheet means formed with openings passing therethrough and arranged according to a predetermined pattern, means for maintaining a fabric in engagement with said sheet means at one face thereof, and means at the other face of said sheet means for directing flames through said openings thereof to burn in the fabric holes arranged according to said pattern.

2. The combination of claim 1 and wherein a vacuum means is located on the side of the fabric opposite from said sheet means for drawing flames through said openings to a given extent.

3. The combination of claim 1 and wherein a flocking means is situated adjacent the sheet means for flocking a fabric according to a given pattern in the region of the openings burned through the fabric.

4. The combination of claim 1 and wherein said sheet means is in the form of a hollow rotary shell having an outer face engaged by the fabric, and said means for directing flames through said openings including a pipe extending along the interior of said shell and having nozzles directed toward the inner face of the shell so that a combustible gas in pipe issuing through the nozzles will support flames which extend through said openings of the rotary shell.

5. The combination of claim 4 and wherein a cooling means coacts with the shell for cooling the latter.

6. The combination of claim 4 and wherein a drive coacts with said shell for rotating the latter and a means coacts with the fabric for maintaining the latter in engagement with the outer face of the shell while moving the fabric in synchronism with the rotary movement of the shell at the area where the fabric engages the shell.

7. The combination of claim 6 and wherein a vacuum means extends axially along said shell at the exterior thereof in alignment with the nozzles for controlling the extent to which flames are drawn through the openings of the rotary shell.

8. The combination of claim 6 and wherein a fabric feeding means includes a pair of rollers engaging the fabric and feeding the latter with one of said rollers having a printing surface supplied with adhesive for printing an adhesive coating onto the fabric at predetermined areas surrounding the opening thereof, and flock-depositing means situated along the path of movement of the fabric subsequent to the feeding rollers for depositing flocking which clings to the fabric at the areas provided with the adhesive coating.

9. The combination of claim 8 and wherein an adjusting means coacts with the printing roller for angularly adjusting the latter with respect to its axis of rotation.

References Cited BENJAMIN A. BORCHELT, Primary Examiner 2 D. A. BENT, Assistant Examiner U.C. Cl. X.R. 156-252 

